CHENNAI: Tata Sons Executive Chairman N Chandrasekaran said many technologies should come together in order for artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics to come together, adding otherwise what they could do is limited.
“Every advancement in technology like the internet, robotics, artificial intelligence, cloud computing, blockchain technology all are breakthroughs. But every breakthrough technology immediately doesn’t get adopted in mass scale. Because technology needs something else in order to be adopted. I studied artificial intelligence ( and robotics) as a course in my Master’s 35 years ago. Nothing happened. It requires storage and processing power, it requires cloud computing, a mobile network,” he said.
“Is generative AI going to take jobs? How to read this thing? Is it real or another tech hype?” he quiped.
Generative AI is a very powerful technology and it will be instrumental in shaping the future, he said adding it would be difficult to ascertain when it will happen.
He was speaking at the 45th anniversary of PKF Sridhar and Santhanam LLP at Chennai on Thursday. He said India has a robust digital technology ecosystem, large and young talent, favourable demographics, digital infrastructures at scale like Aadhaar. It positions us better in leveraging other technologies, he added.
Chandrasekaran talked about challenges like geopolitical issues, pandemic-induced supply chain disruption, global economic growth and disruptions from emerging technologies like AI. After the cold war era, the world was more or less stabilised and predictable but many things changed in the last few years, he remarked.
“We have not done badly. Year ago everyone thought world was going into recession.” Talking about conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza, he said irrespective of the situation the transition towards sustainable energy will get accelerated. India is in a remarkable position in economic growth, execute supply chain and manufacturing aspirations and best placed in all transitions, he said.